Moving in, there are large golden hour markers, comprised of a mix of numerals and triangular markers. The outer index of black markings and numbers indicates both the minutes and elapsed seconds down to a fifth of a second. The face of the 1963 is pure, purposeful and surprisingly elegant for a military watch. The 304 can be seen here and as you can tell, little has changed aesthetically for the Seagull 1963. To paraphrase the Chinese Watch Wiki, project 304 was a government-mandated development of chronographs for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force that was based on the Venus Watch calibre 175 (which you can see in this Minerva), which were sold off by the Swiss brand. So, the fact that the Seagull 1963, as an affordable and sexy watch, has made waves, should serve as lesson to the brand about how the bring a watch to the US market.Īnyway, what makes the 1963 so interesting and worth owning? Well, to start, the 19 or 21 jewel hand wound column-wheel chronograph movement, the ST19, is the resurrection of the movement developed in 1961 under project 304. For watches that are comparatively inexpensive, they seem to be largely styled to compete in the luxury market. But, I also think that they have made some very weird choices with the watch selections they put forth on their US and EU sites. Whether this is due to the stigma of Chinese manufacturing being cheap and unreliable, traditionalism in watch manufacturing that says “if it ain’t Swiss, it ain’t good”, a lack of brand awareness or poor product positioning (or a combination therein) is hard to say without a lot of market research…We all know how valuable “Swiss Made” is for a watch brand and that “made is China” doesn’t always inspire confidence. There are bargain brands, like Android, Stuhrling and Aeromatic 1912, as well as “homage” brands that use Seagull mechanical movements, because they are more affordable and accessible than their Swiss counterparts, but rarely will you see true Seagull brand watches around. But, in the US at least, you wont find Seagull brand at your local jewelry shop, in big department stores or at most on-line retailers at least, not in the open. Yet, Seagull, or Tianjin Seagull, is one of the 4 (sometimes said 3) largest watch manufacturers currently in business.
The movement in your watch probably comes from ETA, Ronda, Miyota or Seiko (yes, making big generalizations, but wait for the point).
Sure, if you are a watch-nerd, you are probably aware of the Seagull brand as a major manufacturer of movements and watches (including tourbillons), but you also most likely don’t own one. It got a lot of attention from watch forums and fashion blogs because, simply, it’s a great looking and affordable watch with authentic vintage styling that refers to non-Swiss watch-making history. The Seagull 1963 is one of the more intriguing watches to come out, or rather be re-released, in a little while.
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